The FBI and Oregon State Police have arrested members of a group of armed protesters who took over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than three weeks, including group leader Ammon Bundy, USA Today reports.
Authorities moved in on the group around 4:25 p.m. PST Tuesday along Highway 395 during a traffic stop. Shots were fired, resulting in the death of one individual "who was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest," a joint FBI-OSP release read.
Bundy Ranch, the ranch in Nevada run by Ammon Bundy's father, Cliven Bundy, said on Facebook that Arizona resident Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who penned the novel Only by Blood and Suffering, was shot and killed in the encounter.
Finicum's ex-wife, Kelly Whatcott, told USA Today that she learned from their children that he was killed.
"He did not mean any harm to anyone," Whatcott told the site. "He believed fiercely in freedom. I know he carried around a holster and a gun, but he's a cowboy."
One other individual sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the local hospital. He was later arrested and taken into custody.
Those arrested in the initial wave are identified as the following:
* Ammon Edward Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho
* Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nev.
* Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev.
* Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah
* Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.
This group was arrested as the militants were on their way to a planned meeting with community members, NPR notes.
Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz., was later taken into custody around 5:50 p.m., and Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, was arrested at 6:30 p.m., also in Oregon.
One man, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, turned himself in to the Peoria, Ariz., Police Department, where the FBI's Phoenix Division made a probable cause arrest at 8:30 p.m.
All of the aforementioned face a federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats, NPR reports.
According to NPR, since the arrest, authorities have beefed up their presence at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., where it is believed that at least 10 people are still occupying the property.